In keeping with Robert Hughes's dictum that architecture is "the art you live in," a remarkable Ai Weiwei-designed house dubbed "living art" by some is reported to have sold this week to an unnamed buyer for the jaw-dropping price of $4.9 Million.

The 15-year-old home, previously available to rent, has been on the market since 2019, when it was initially listed for a slightly higher price of $5.25 Million. The prolific Chinese artist's design for the property includes an in-ground lap pool, an adjacent two-winged guest house completed three years later with a built-in studio, a BOFFI kitchen, and three fireplaces. 

Sitting on a lush 37-acre plot of land in Columbia County, the 3,500-square-foot main house is composed of four interconnected module boxes made of wood and covered in corrugated iron. Its interior features wood-gypsum paneling and three large bathrooms in addition to floor-to-ceiling windows that offer sweeping views of the surrounding Upstate countryside. 

Designed for art collecting power couple Christopher Tsai and André Stockamp in collaboration with the Swiss firm HHF, the home is built to simultaneously replicate a farmhouse structure on the outside while maintaining a spacious, gallery-minded focus throughout its interior. 

The home represents Ai's sole architectural work in America, although he has worked previously with HHF and other firms on designs for his own (now-demolished) studio, a photography space, and the so-called "Bird's Nest" stadium, which he collaborated with Herzog & de Meuron for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Its guest house was named one of 65 winners of the American Architecture Awards in 2013, the same year the original owners sold the property for $4.25 Million, and continues to serve as a very popular inspiration on Pinterest. 

Bathed in natural light, it should serve as the perfect pandemic getaway for its new owners; particularly in the fall, when the guest house's corten steel exterior, meant to rust, begins to blend with the brilliant Autumnal landscape framing it.